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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1543 Saturday, 17 September 2005
[1] From: Arnie Perlstein <
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Date: Thursday, 15 Sep 2005 11:05:42 -0400
Subj: Re Performing Angelo
[2] From: Julia Griffin <
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Date: Thursday, 15 Sep 2005 15:48:01 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1532 Performing Angelo
[3] From: Abigail Quart <
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Date: Thursday, 15 Sep 2005 22:55:15 -0400
Subj: RE: SHK 16.1532 Performing Angelo
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Arnie Perlstein <
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Date: Thursday, 15 Sep 2005 11:05:42 -0400
Subject: Re Performing Angelo
"Any character who addresses his penis onstage is a "comedic"
character....What I keep wondering is if Elizabethan propmasters had
some sort of device by which the swelling under Angelo's robes could be
made readily apparent to the audience. We know Angelo is hiding
something from Isabella because he has turned away from her, as
evidenced by her twice asking him to turn back, and his strangled
utterances bidding her to go and come back another time." Abigail, that
is absolutely brilliant! That one flew right under my radar screen, but
of course that is exactly what is going on.
"Professor Martha England of Queens College, CUNY, who insisted we
remember that the above three characters were very young, otherwise
their mistakes would not be forgivable." Abigail, where is the evidence
that the Duke is young? I agree that Angelo and Isabella are, but I see
the Duke as a middle aged Lothario/Machiavel, sort of like Joseph
Heller's protagonist Bobby Slocum in Something Happened.
"In fact, Measure would be a tragedy instead of a comedy if the Duke
didn't run into Isabella at the prison. It's quite amazing. He's dressed
as a monk. She's dressed as a nun. He's walking out of the cells, she's
walking toward them...they pass. As near as I can tell from the dialog
in that scene, the Duke almost leaves the stage entirely (because
Isabella has the chance to complete her dialog with the Provost) and
then doubles right back to speak to the Provost again, himself. It's
like lightning strikes him but it takes a second for him to process it.
BUT AFTER THE DUKE SEES THE NUNLET, ALL HIS PLANS CHANGE. He just
refuses to admit why." Abigail, that is very ingenious close reading,
but, with all due respect, I believe your initial premise is 180 degrees
off, and therefore you've got the Duke absolutely backwards. To my mind,
he was expecting Isabella there, in fact, that was the whole point of
his leaving and coming back disguised, i.e., so that he could get her to
come back to Vienna, so he could get close to her without her knowing
it's him! Why? Because, I'd argue, they know each other from before, and
their last encounter left a rather negative impression on her. Seen that
way, the whole play is actually a very dark screwball comedy-He's
looking to win her back, and the fate of Vienna is just a cover story.
He has just come up with a very peculiar/over-the-top way of doing it!
"I've always thought Isabel's visit to her doomed brother Claudio is a
comic scene, although I've never been able to convince anyone else."
I'm with you 100%, Bob! "Although Claudio at first clucks
sympathetically with her refusal even to imagine such a thing, soon he's
trying to sell her on the idea. Although it's always played solemn as
stone, I believe it was written to be funny, that "Death is a fearful
thing" is a comic pivot line something like Benedick's "Man is a giddy
thing"-a lame general abstraction about nature to justify one's own
less-than-perfect self, and, of course, human weakness is the stuff of
comedy." That is pitch perfect, Bob, it fits with my sense of MFM as a
very dark screwball comedy.
Arnie Perlstein
Weston, Florida
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Julia Griffin <
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Date: Thursday, 15 Sep 2005 15:48:01 -0400
Subject: 16.1532 Performing Angelo
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1532 Performing Angelo
I don't see why we should imagine the Duke and Angelo as particularly
young: the Duke speaks of laws let slip for 14 years (Claudio says 19),
and seems to imply that this is his fault; Angelo should have married
Mariana 5 years ago, so he isn't a baby. Whether you think he'd be
forgivable at any age is, of course, a personal thing.
For the visit of Isabella to Claudio: I think the first part of the
scene is often played with (if not for) laughs: "Thanks, dear Isabel"
can hardly help being funny, in its context (if all I had to do was die
for you, I'd be only too happy); and perhaps Isabella's fear that
Claudio might prefer "six or seven winters" of life to her honour (how
old does she think he is?) has its humorous side too. But "death is a
fearful thing" - that doesn't seem so promising. Timor mortis conturbat
me. "To lie in cold obstruction and to rot" - giggling, anyone? It
might get a laugh on Olympus, but probably not down here.
Julia
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Abigail Quart <
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Date: Thursday, 15 Sep 2005 22:55:15 -0400
Subject: 16.1532 Performing Angelo
Comment: RE: SHK 16.1532 Performing Angelo
Alan Rickman is too old to play Angelo. If you want to see the comedy in
the scene, cast Leo Di Caprio as Angelo. Cast Jude Law. Cast Joaquin
Phoenix. Cast Jack Black.
By the same token, Richard E. Grant is too ancient for Claudio. Claudio
should be played by any newcomer who looks like or is a teenager(the
boys who play Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, for instance). Richard E.
Grant could, stretching it, be the Duke. Although I think I'd prefer
Orlando Bloom. Johnny Depp.
There's no humor in a middle-aged man thinking he is the master of his
domain. But when twenty and early 30s-somethings spout that nonsense,
well, Seinfeld knew it was funny. So did Shakespeare.
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